The present invention relates to a method and system for creating a mercury halide standard. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for creating a mercury halide standard for use in testing a mercury analyzer system.
Mercury pollution has been determined to have a detrimental effect on humans. It particularly affects women of childbearing age and people who frequently consume contaminated fish. At high doses, mercury exposure can cause tremors, inability to walk, convulsions, or death. The developing human fetus is the most sensitive to the effects of mercury. Exposure to mercury in the developing fetus can cause delayed onset of walking and talking, cerebral palsy, and reduced neurological test scores.
Elemental mercury, Hg0, can have a lifetime in the atmosphere of six to twelve months before being deposited far away from the source of the mercury. Ionic mercury, Hg (II) or Hg+2, is water soluble and is another common pollutant that typically forms as mercury chloride, HgCl2. Mercury chloride often results from combustion processes that have free chlorine, such as coal-fired power plants and waste incinerators.
There have been numerous devices designed to measure the amount of mercury present in a specimen such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,475,802 to Schaedlich et al., and titled “Apparatus For and Method of Collecting Gaseous Mercury and Differentiating Between Different Mercury Components.” Typical of these devices are systems that include a mercury analyzer. Such analyzers read only elemental mercury. Any Hg+2 must first be converted to elemental mercury in the system before being analyzed. If all the Hg+2 is converted to elemental mercury, an accurate measurement of the amount of mercury in the specimen can be obtained. However, if any Hg+2 is not converted, the analyzer will not read it, and the resulting measurement will not accurately reflect total mercury content. The success of the conversion, therefore, impacts the accuracy of the measurements made by such analyzers.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to test the completeness of the conversion from Hg+2 to elemental mercury within these systems. The test results will enable the analyzers to accurately measure the total elemental mercury and Hg+2 content in the specimen.